NEW HAVEN, Conn., Nov. 10 (UPI) -- A U.S.-led team of scientists has found three chromosome segments, or loci, where common genetic variations can create a significant risk of brain aneurysms.
Yale University medical scientists said their finding represents a large step toward unraveling the mysteries of brain aneurysms, the often fatal rupturing of blood vessels that afflicts 500,000 people worldwide each year and nearly killed U.S. Vice President-elect Joe Biden two decades ago.
The international team led by Dr. Murat Gunel and Dr. Richard Lifton scanned the genomes of more than 2,000 people suffering intracranial aneurysms along with 8,000 healthy subjects. The subjects were from hospitals in Finland, the Netherlands and Japan, and the results were similar in all groups, indicating the variations increase risk among diverse human populations.
"Even though we have made significant strides in treating unruptured aneurysms, until now we have not had an effective means of identifying the majority of individuals at risk of developing this deadly problem," said Gunel. "These genetic findings provide a starting point for changing that equation."
The research that included Kaya Bilguvar, Shrikant Mane, Christopher Mason, Murim Choi, Emilia Gaal, Yasa Bayri, Luis Kobl, Zulfikar Arlier, Sudhakar Ravuri and Matthew State appears online in the journal Nature Genetics.
